PENNSYLVANIA
From a news release:
The Meadville KOA Campground is celebrating 35 years of serving camping families. Located 7 miles east of Meadville on Route 27, this one-time fish hatchery and auction barn is now a highly rated, award-winning KOA Campground.
“We have multiple generations of campers camping with us,” said Meadville KOA owner Tim Chilson. “We’ve not only served them and their children, but we now have their grandchildren and great-grandchildren camping with us. Our goal is... Read more

Black pins mark the location of state parks in Texas. For now, all parks remain open, despite threats that some parks could be closed due to underfunding of the parks budget.
The political will to keep state parks open across the state of Texas has been prominent in government hearings and the minds of legislators, the Abiline Reporter-News reported.
“I’m optimistic that we will adequately and properly fund state parks out of this budget cycle,” said Texas Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo.
The... Read more

Weekend weather outlook courtesy of AcuWeather.com
AccuWeather.com reports a wintry system that will make a cross-country tour beginning this weekend has the potential to develop into a major storm along the East Coast next week.
The storm is cruising northern Pacific waters to close out this week and will push into the Pacific Northwest this weekend with a modest dose of rain and mountain snow.
In fact, most of the life of this storm as it traverses the Northwest (March 2-3), then the northern Rockies... Read more

For the eighth consecutive year Camping World RV Sales was ranked as America’s No. 1 seller of towable and motorized RVs by Statistical Surveys Inc. (SSI) for 2012.
“Our 2012 award indicates we continue to head in the right direction with a solid foundation and business plan in place,” said Roger Nuttall, president of Camping World Retail Group. “While we are pleased with our results, we are looking forward to continued sales improvement and are excited about our opportunity for continued... Read more

Summary: A continuing pattern of above normal precipitation for the Southeast helped to introduce widespread improvements for this week. A series of winter storms impacted conditions on the Plains, where areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri were recipients of moisture from multiple storms.
The Northeast: A fairly dry week did not allow for any improvements in the region, but no degradation was warranted either. More than an inch of precipitation was recorded along the coast from Massachusetts... Read more

There’s nothing like a good winter storm to get people in the mood for camping.
By 11:30 Monday morning (Feb. 25), more than 60% of state park campsites for Memorial Day weekend that offer electricity or full hook ups had been reserved, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reported.
Campers wanting to spend the holiday weekend at George Wyth, Lewis and Clark, Viking Lake and Walnut Woods state parks should plan to arrive a few days early for one of the walk-up sites with electricity –... Read more

Four Texas park areas that cover nearly 48,000 acres of forests, canyons and beaches remain closed because park officials don’t have the money to open them.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department hasn’t gotten money from the Legislature to develop new parks for a decade, the Houston Chronicle reported. That frustrates parks advocates, who point to tracts of land that the state owns but hasn’t developed for visitors.
Those tracts include Davis Hill State Park, a 1,700-acre plot east of downtown... Read more

Rangers such as this one working in a national park in the West are likely cuts in the National Park Service operations starting on Friday (March 1) as mandated federal budget cuts take effect.
National parks across the country have begun to release specific information on the upcoming sequestration, in an effort to warn families planning vacations, community members who depend on the parks for income, and park employees to brace for the impact, examiner.com reported.
Blue Ridge Parkway will cut... Read more

Paul Bambei, ARVC president and CEO
David Ransom, ARVC lobbyist
The Mid-Atlantic Coastal States Conference for Campground Owners gets underway March 5-6 at the Dover Downs Casino Hotel in Dover, Del.
Campground owners and managers from New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware will come together for two days of educational seminars and a trade show. Many of this year’s topics will focus on “Emergency Preparedness” with Jim Eberwine, former meteorologist with the National Weather Service, as the keynote... Read more

Participants enjoy the wine-tasting tour at the Wine Country RV Resort during this week's CalARVC regional meeting at the RV park. Photo courtesy of Evanne Schmarder and Facebook.
The first reports about the California RV Park Winter Getaway held this week at the Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles, Calif., give a big "thumbs up" to the inaugural event.
In the morning session, "Making the Most of Your Marketing," Debbie Sipe, executive director of the California Association... Read more